Thinking Globally; A Little City Trolls for Trade

With new trade agreements breaking down the barriers between continents and nations, consider the case of East Orange. After decades of economic malaise, this city is making an unlikely pitch to be a center of global commerce.

East Orange, one of the New York area's oldest commuter suburbs, has no large manufacturers, holds little appeal to office developers and has not had the success of other New Jersey suburbs in luring business from Manhattan.

What it does have is a high concentration of African-American residents, including about 2,000 immigrants from the West African nation of Ghana. And it was these residents, including E. K. Sam, a software designer, who helped push the extraordinary international venture of a trade mission linking New Jersey and Ghana.

"There are a lot of opportunities in developing countries," said Mr. Sam, who is president of SIU Software Solutions, based here. "They have often been overlooked by American business, to its own detriment."

The mission to Ghana for two weeks in September has produced these results so far: a $57 million contract, nearly completed, to shore up part of Ghana's eroded coast line, several bids by New Jersey companies to sell computer equipment in Ghana, agreements to import pineapples and other food from Ghana and a student exchange agreement between Upsala College here and the three universities of Ghana. For Love of Country

"I worried that we would be perceived as just a small town," said Cardell Cooper, the Mayor of East Orange, a city of 72,000 people wedged between Newark and Montclair. The Mayor, who was among 44 people in the trade mission, said all but $20,000 of the $250,000 cost of the mission was paid by companies that participated. East Orange put up $5,000; $15,000 came from the state.

Now, Mr. Cooper said, "We've established a great opportunity and I hope this gets the attention of the White House."

Although Presidential laurels may be premature, East Orange's early success in Ghana reflects the economic power of cities that can call upon the cultural links of their own immigrant populations.

"One lesson is that ethnic groups can bring a lot to the table, and they will do so for the love of their native countries as well as the United States," said Phil Ferzan, the director of the New Jersey Division of International Trade, who traveled to Ghana with the East Orange mission. A Main-Street Influence

Mr. Ferzan said that trip has already produced better results than any of the other four missions New Jersey has sent abroad since 1990, to Russia, Italy, Japan and Mexico.

Fully 95 percent of East Orange's residents are African-Americans, Mayor Cooper said, giving it a higher percentage of residents of African descent than any United States city besides East St. Louis, Ill. And while most people here are natives of the United States, East Orange has been a magnet for immigrants for more than two decades.

Most obvious, particularly along the city's Main Street business district, is the influence of its immigrants from the Caribbean. Scattered along the commercial strip are such businesses as Dalies West Indian Restaurant, Hacotrans Le Caurrier D'Haiti, a travel agency, and a clothing store that promotes itself as "Things Jamaican."

Although less prominent on Main Street, East Orange's immigrants from Ghana have been growing rapidly in numbers and political influence. They come from a nation where the government has been revamped over the last two years by democratic reforms and where economic development has outpaced most of West Africa.

Mr. Sam said people from Ghana, who have also established enclaves in Brooklyn and Newark, are attracted to East Orange because of its large homes and suburban tranquillity and because they can share some of the cultural and tribal traditions of their homeland here, including feasts and elaborate rituals to accompany births and deaths. Suggestion of a Queen

With its peculiar amalgam of West African culture and suburban life, people here say East Orange has an advantage in wooing business in Ghana. Their trade mission was suggested first by visitors from Ghana to East Orange.

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They included two of Ghana's most powerful tribal leaders, Osagyefo Nana Kuntukununku II, king of the Akyem people, and Nana Doua II, queen of Akuapem State, both of whom have visited since 1992 during diplomatic forays.

By lucky cultural coincidence, many of East Orange's immigrants are members of Queen Doua's tribe, including Mr. Sam's wife, Philomena, who emigrated from Ghana in 1986 and who operates a store here that specializes in colorful kente cloth and other Ghanaian fabrics.

"My greatest goal is to promote African culture here," Mrs. Sam said. Her efforts were given a major boost by Queen Doua, who had been expected to make a brief stopover in East Orange, but instead stayed for two weeks and encouraged business people here to pursue new trade links with her country.

What followed was a grass-roots effort, orchestrated by the Sams and other Ghanaian immigrants, to sell New Jersey on the idea of a trade mission to their homeland. After winning the support of Mayor Cooper and others in East Orange, and then of the Governor, Jim Florio, the group enlisted business people from across New Jersey.

The group went prepared with gifts. East Orange Day care centers, hospitals and the city's library donated medical supplies, toys and books.

Mayor Cooper said the group was far from the only trade mission trying to lure business in Ghana; others from China, Japan and several European nations had been courting the country aggressively. Breakthrough on a Contract

But it became clear to the New Jerseyans that they had made a good impression by their third day in Ghana, when Jerry Rawlings, who has been Ghana's President since 1979, met with them for over three hours to discuss Ghana's economy and trade.

"We expected a few minutes and a photo opportunity," said Mayor Cooper, whose offices here are now strewn with clippings from Ghanaian newspapers that covered his group's travels in their country. After meeting with Mr. Rawlings, the group was invited to meet with several of his Government's senior officials for trade and economic development.

By far the biggest beneficiary of the mission has been Breakwaters International of Flemington, N.J., an eight-year-old engineering companythat installs huge concrete offshore reefs, and had been vying with several foreign companies for work on a severely eroded and densely populated stretch of Ghana's coast.

"The trade mission created an atmosphere that made this happen for us," said Richard Creter, Breakwaters' president. Although a final contract has not been signed, he said the company has letters of intent from President Rawlings's administration to proceed with a $57 million contract.

That would mean the creation of 300 jobs in New Jersey, he said, where cranes and other construction equipment would be manufactured for the Ghanaian project.

Other trading agreements that result from the trip are expected to be smaller. A Matawan company hopes to import a species of Ghanaian pineapples that it hopes to market as a sweeter alternative to those from Hawaii. Mr. Sam's company is negotiating with Ghana's electric utility to provide computerized billing services. A Morristown computer company has put in its bid to provide Ghana's first "800" telephone number service.

Perhaps the smallest of the new trade links is between Ghana and Mrs. Sam, who is preparing a vacant storefront next to her kente cloth boutique to be used as a distribution center for dried casava, okra, palm oil and other foods from Ghana. She said she expected a ready market among West African immigrants throughout New York City and its suburbs.

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A version of this article appears in print on January 27, 1994, on Page B00001 of the National edition with the headline: Thinking Globally; A Little City Trolls for Trade. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe